Anno Dominae
by mlle.imandeus
Summary: A feudal magical sci-fi mashup AU. You may recognize flavors of Treasure Planet and Star Wars, but I hope you will find it original enough to hold your interest. Will be Elsanna eventually. Rated T for mature themes, may become M eventually.
1. Chapter 1

The farm Anno Simian was fostered at was among the most widely known in Arrendelle. It was probably the largest too, although since many grazing pastures and such were held in community by all the neighbors, no one knew for certain.

It had irregular conglomerations of buildings and vineyards that most definitely belonged to the distant relatives who had raised her, interspersed with grazing lands and rice fields that belonged to everyone. It was a piecemeal that meant no one knew where were public lands to cross and where was private property. So few, other than her 'uncle' (who was most definitely not her uncle), cared enough in the end to know which was which. And he, as one man, could do little to maintain the sanctity of his property lines alone.

It was said you could walk from the Imperial Prelate's compound on the city's edge to the Riverfolk freehold without ever leaving her uncle's land and you could make the same journey without ever touching it. Neither was true, but they were so nearly true that few had the education and understanding sufficient to care.

Though lands so widespread and important nearly made her uncle a gentleman, and he certainly never found time to do work dirtier than administration, the name of Farmer kept him from ascending out of his class and he was content.  
A serious soul, he wanted all that was due him and nothing more. He felt that if God wanted him to have Imperial respect he would not be called Farmer. And he accepted his place readily.

Though it was only in his father's time that no land had a title greater than freehold and the Imperator was a nominal secular title given to the Voice of the Council, the highest authority permitted to reign. He accepted the authority of the Imperator not only civilly, but also as religious Patriarch. Not because he believed but because he was by nature a complacent man.

Not so his niece, who he knew his precise relationship to, but saw no reason to mention it when niece was easier.

Anno knew her uncle was not her uncle. She knew that he was a much respected member of the community and she was proud. Not so proud that it gave her any desire to be respected as he was, or even at all. Respect was neither fun nor exciting. As the rag man by the dump told her, when he taught her to play dice for gingerbread. 'If hell is gonna get you one time or the other, give me a good life now and let the afterlife worry for itself.'

Of course he wouldn't have said that if he'd known she was a girl. He might be a dirty ragman and a scoundrel. But he was an Imperial citizen and no one was fool enough to tell a girl living under Imperial rule that she could and should go out and grab the life she dreams of. It is dangerous to say something so antagonistic to the status quo. Not to mention being incredibly cruel to the poor girl who might then think she had options she most assuredly did not have.

So Anno braided her thick red hair back away from her face in finger thick sailor's braids. Which must be covered by her kerchief on those few occasions she had to wear girls clothes and use the name Anna Farmer.

A normal day found her coltishly long limbs and body covered in castoff boys clothes she'd pinched from the church's charity box. Her fair skin long since tanned nut brown in a manner her uncle found distasteful almost to the point of offense and often brought up when reprimanding her for any of her many infractions. Her skin was now lightly freckled with red-brown spots the color of the river clay it was so often coated with. A permenant change that her uncle said might as well be scars for how much it drove her bride price down. Anno laughed and said that was the idea, earning herself a sound thrashing.

Anno went out and made or took in pieces the life she desired. She found her way through the trees and over the roofs of possibly every building in town. Through many a basement and cupboard, when windows and cellar doors were left unlatched.

She was incorrigible and unchallengeable. Found at the head of every army or group of highwaymen. If a group of boys filled a tree, crowing, next to a seminary exam room. She could be found in the center. Her closest lieutenants knew her secret and didn't share it for the deep love and loyalty she inspired; added to the fear of a worse thrashing then they suffered after making any number of comments she might choose to take as mocking or condescending.

Her cleverness and need for secrecy inspired her to have skinny dipping in the river, a perennial favorite, declared babyish and stupid. Every boy who feared cruel mockery and having his clothes stolen and thrown down a well soon found swimming in his street clothes the fun and rebellious act she claimed it was.

She was not the only transformed girl among the village boys then. The others were never allowed so close as to take her down with them should they ever be discovered. But they did provide assistance when one or another of them was in danger of being unmasked. In a liberal town such as this, being discovered masquerading as a boy only carried the penalty of flogging to falling and being shipped to a convent for life.  
If the girl was of age, and not unattractive, she might be raped into marriage on the road to the convent but it would never be tolerated in town limits.  
This created a situation where if you were almost found out they banded together to save you, if you were undeniably unmasked no one knew you, and the other 'boys' were the loudest and most offensive in their denunciations.

The reason girls kept trying this same door to freedom was it was the only other choice to being a wife or a nun. And sometimes it even worked; the leader who had mentored Anno, had successfully enrolled in the Imperial Naval Academy two years prior. A feat Anno hoped to replicate later that year.

But until then she led her army, interspersed with farm girls and town girls alike, against their most hated and envied of enemies, Riverfolk, the Sail Weavers. In Arendelle, as well as most the lands of her world, they were nearly all Faoine, with their garnet red hair and milk white skin that never freckled, except with the few half breeds. Behind locked and guarded gates they labored in walled Freeholds.

There were those who said they had shut down commerce between the worlds for two months when the empire tried to assimilate them. Others said they were left alone because that was their price for actively collaborating with the Downfall of the People's Council and the rise of the Imperium and the Church of the Widower. Regardless, now they were treated practically as a different species then the people outside their walls. They alone could make the sails that billowed and filled with light rather than wind, the sails that made sailing between the worlds possible. Both on the ships that sailed The Void between worlds, and on the Lesser Ships both schooners and avian form that sailed or flew the skies.

They were universally feared and treated like human garbage even as far as two streets from their compounds. They had to travel in groups so they wouldn't be abused in broad daylight. The Imperium limited how many children they could have, on threat of just killing any over-births themselves. It was a life no sane person would choose as far as Anno and her friends would say.  
But they were allowed to keep the old ways, were rumored to be witches and the girls openly played with the boys. In every battle there were young girls, their skirts pulled up showing their knees and often above, quite shamelessly. Their skirts filled with hard heavy clods of river clay and functioning as ammo dumps for the children surrounding each girl. She would throw with one hand while the other held her skirt up like a basket, an amount no boy's pocket could match.

Even though they were hated, feared, and reviled; Anno envied them so bitterly she had to actively distract herself sometimes, so her bile would not creep up the back of her throat, in rage, envy, and bitter hate.

Not at the girls, who even as she punished them, she knew it was not their fault. But instead at the Imperium and the world she lived in. She had no possible clue who her grandmother was, but she knew beyond doubt that she was just as free as the river girls. After joining, if she managed it, she would fight the Imperial Aero Navy from within. Though she had no clue yet how she might do that.

Of course she was not completely ignorant of how to nibble away at the speed expected of a teenage girl versus an empire.  
She once led her army into a vacant troop carrier parked near the river. And suddenly two dozen children were able to commit treason. Anno found the controls of an imperial avian troop transport were simplified to the point where they bore a strong resemblance to the land transports used to take her farms goods to market. The only difference an added up/down lever that she recognized by it being the one lever she'd not seen before and operated using the assumption that since it was grounded it must be fully in the down position and opposite must be up. She blessed providence for the Imperium thinking its troops so stupid.

She did not know why they were called avian transports as they looked nothing like birds. They looked like giant cigars with flat blocky rectangular wings. They were completely made out of sunsail cloth stretched tight over a light metal frame. But whatever name was given them to see the simple sticks she recognized as so similar to the wagon she was allowed to drive back home had filled her with terrified delight. She was going to do it.

Anno got it up on her own. Her troops never expected to find themselves airborne but they embraced it and crowed. Then chanting her name they poured over the transport looking for possible stealables. They knew that they only had a moment to have their thrill and make whatever small blow they might against the Imperium and get out before they were caught and punished beyond reason.

She eventually crashed it into the center of the Weaver Freehold, knowing the Imperium Guard could not enter to arrest them. They ran through the few streets behind the walls, shrieking and laughing, holding their small easily hideable pilfered souvenir treasures.  
Except Anno who had found the captain's pistol, carelessly draped on his belt and left behind. A mistake that was likely to take his captaincy.

She ran half expecting to have to use it to get them out of the Freehold. But every adult she saw was laughing openly and waving them on. Finally they came to the bath house where an old man who looked too dark and leathery to be a Weaver. "Anno Simian, you get your ratboys in here." He called.

Knowing they were not safe yet and drunk on chaos she took the old man's advice and led her troops into the bath house.

When the door was closed the old man led them to a large steaming pool. "Very well now, you all get in the pool and I'll pull out the bung. Hold your breath and go down the drain one at a time. It is an eight foot drop into the sewers but they are deep enough to dive into this close to the river. After that last storm you'll find them as clean as you can hope for. Swim toward the light and you'll be in the river proper in maybe two cord. I suggest you get as many of your friends swimming in the river as fast as you can round them up. The more of you that are running around wet and dirty the better. In case they put together how you got out of here. They probably have just mustering at our walls and you will have a brief safety window while they are looking around for you to come out through a door or over the wall."

He went over to the winch that would break the tar seal on the enormous ceramic plug and hoist it out of the way. The troops all began to jump into the water. And Anno was down the drain and splashing around in the half dark of the sewer before she wondered who he was and how he knew her name.

* * *

Lady Elsa Coronet knew she was not presentable when she arrived at the receiving room of her father's charthouse. She knew he would be there as he was from dawn until long after dusk on the last day of every cycle, overseeing the statistics of all his holdings. Technical Administration Officer Black was at the desk. "Lady," He said before she could speak, "Your father not only said you were to be escorted into his office the moment I saw you, he also has been out half a dozen times to ask me if you had presented yourself yet. He is anxious and distressed. I'm sorry to have you presented in such a state, but there is no helping it." Officer Black was young enough to actually believe every woman was so concerned with appearances that in this situation it would be the most important aspect.

"Do not worry about it, Sir. Please just take me in and let my father know I am here." He saluted with a shallow bow and walked her back to her father's private office, leaving her there while he hurried off to fetch her father.

The Lord entered with Black a respectful distance behind him. "Daughter," He said.

"Father," She said kneeling and kissing his hand. "I await your sufferance father, I have news."

"I would certainly expect so, under the circumstances." He pointed to the door. "Dismissed, Black. Tell the others to take a meal break, I may be some time."

"Sir." Black acknowledged, bowed and saluted, then left them.

"Elsa, delivering medical and survival supplies to known loyalists? You aren't safe to even leave the family lands alone and you are commanding clandestine operations for the Council's government in exile."

"It was a humanitarian mission of mercy, father. Mercy does not recognize politics." She said, trying to sound strong and confident.

"See, my love, therein lies the problem. That excuse would work if the positions were reversed; if it was a strong council battling guerrilla Imperial forces. But in the eyes of his Imperial Majesty any assistance given to his enemies is treason. Pure and simple, no excuses. And you were caught doing it. The only thing we have going for us is you are not in custody. So possibly we can just try to hardline it. Just insist that it wasn't you. But this will damage the power and credibility of the Council. This is bad, Elsa and we don't know how bad yet, and won't know completely for a while. Lord Hans is coming day after tomorrow for dinner and I expect it will get worse after that." He hung his head as he finished and let her seat him in a chair.

"Hans, father?" She asked when she had seated herself near him.

"Lord Hans, and I doubt that's the worst of it." He said, sounding lost and scared and surprisingly old.


	2. Chapter 2

The Void was exactly what it sounded like, the enormous eternal void between worlds.

In the early days, after the creation of the solar cloth that made travel between worlds possible; there were those who called it the Starry Sea.  
However within the first twenty years there were enough sailors lost overboard to fall through the nothingness forever, that it no longer seemed so romantic. If not 'forever', they would fall until they passed a planetary body with sufficient strength to pull them in. Not that that made any difference, once they hit gravity they would begin to pick up speed until they hit the ground with liquefying force. Even if they hit an ocean rather than land, at those speeds the effect would be the same.

Rarely, an entire ship might lose their sails in battle and might plummet through The Void. If they hit an ocean, and were falling bow first, so it would dive rather than shatter, there might be a crew survival rate of as high as twenty percent.

This time the ship plummeting toward the surface had intentionally jettisoned it's masts in a last ditch attempt to avoid the Imperium's enormous frigate that had been firing on them after signaling with an order that they prepare to be boarded.

The small schooner had spring steel wings of solar cloth that would save it once it had avoided this little problem.  
Although the wings were not Void-worthy and the Imperium's ship would land in it's own time to investigate the 'crash'. At least it would buy them an hour or two for their crew to disappear into the populace.

Imperium ships carried projectile and sonic pulse cannons, plus there was always the rare but extant possibility of a magic user on board.  
It was a sonic blast that hit the ship then, violently jostling the monks, Allbrothers Sven and King, as they tried to seek both some sort of safety and a viable path out of the way of the chaos the crew was creating.

His constant stream of demanding chatter might cause a casual observer to think the haughty rawboned Alb King was the superior. In fact the muscular, boxy and hirsute Alb Sven was his companion's equal. Except in the area of talking where a vow of silence made him noticeably and necessarily the lesser.

As another shock shook the ship, Alb Sven took one hand, nonchalantly grabbing King's upper arm and lending his thick solid stability to his more willowy companion.

Sven looked questioningly into King's panicked eyes as he effortlessly held him upright. He looked up and down the corridor, then looked back at King and shrugged.

Alb King turned his head back and forth, full generous ears listening intently. "What's that?" he said. Though the question was rhetorical, as he was not looking at his companion so could not see the handsigns that would have comprised any answer given by Alb Sven. "Those shots are softer followed by that scrabbling sound on the walls. They are firing net cannons at us. We're doomed."

Alb Sven took a silent moment to gather his thoughts. He leaned his muscular barrel torso against the wall nonchalantly, looked thoughtful for a moment, then began to form signs with his thick but nimble fingers.

"No," Alb King said, "I don't suppose they ever seriously suspected they could outrun the Imperium. This is why I recommended they not run at all. I'm certain we will all end up in reform camps or down in a mine somewhere, chained to a shovel."

Sven's fingers scurried through a few more signs.

"Overreacting am I? Being honest is what I am. It was Captain Elias's unwillingness to accept the gravity of this situation that got us here. He was practically taunting the Imperium to detain us. We are doomed!"

His tall, thick companion continued to sign, smiling ironically.

King's eyes bugged from his head in shock and prissy outrage. "Maybe I drew them with my negativity?! What a horrible thing to say, what a horrible thing to think. And to say it with a smile! You are a monster, dear Sven, an inhuman monster!"

Sven continued signing, trying to hide a smile that was quickly turning into a laugh.

"You know very well what I meant. An uninoih monster, then. And no credit to your tribe either, I'm sorry to say."

A group of crewmembers trotted by on the way to their stations holding sidearm revolvers and single shot artillery at the ready, but looking like they were going bravely to slaughter.

Alb King watched the crew until they were out of sight, then turning back to face Alb Sven, found him having not moved from leaning against the wall, but obviously listening intently. It only took King a moment of concentration to hear what his companion was listening for. Gun shots in the distance, accompanied by marching footsteps.

Alb King spoke the obvious, "They've breached the hull." a moment before the crewmembers came back into sight around the corner trading gunfire with the soldiers of the Imperium.

With an explosion and a cloud of wooden shrapnel, a large breach in the hull opened on the other side of the embattled crew and immediately filled with the Imperium's troops. The Allbrothers were between the soldiers and the crew. But the Imperial Dispensation Toward Clergy, meant they could walk untouched through the most furious of battles, and the soldiers looked blindly past them and fought around them as if they were not there.

Directing a peremptory motion to his companion, King began to try to edge his way past the battle to safety.  
As they slowly made their way down the hall, it was filling with smoke and blood and the occasional ricocheting projectile.

Having safely navigated past the crew and most of the soldiers, the last soldier caught a bullet in the face, just as they passed, spraying them with armor chips, blood, bone, and little shreds of flesh and organ. Obviously an exploding round.

Another exploding round missed it's intended target and hit the ground at Alb King's feet. The explosion blew a hole in the floor just large enough for him to fall through if he lost his balance. He promptly did.

Alb Sven looked around and comparing the pitched battle on this level and the dark silence of the storage decks below, shrugged and jumped in after him.

When he landed safely he began to help Alb King extricate himself from a crate of netting he had fallen into. "Help!" King shouted, even though Sven was already doing precisely that. "I think I've broken my ankle. I have! I know I have!" As usual his tone quickly turned from panic to pout. "You're doing it wrong. You'll have my whole foot off if you don't slow down."

Sven's quick and nimble fingers, having eased the tangled netting open, released his companion a moment later.

King continued to complain. "This is entirely your fault, you know. I wanted to stay by the captain. He would know what to do. It was your idea to go gallivanting off. Quite cowardly under the circumstances, I must say. Then I end up here, trapped with a broken leg. I could have died. You basically broke my leg and almost killed me. You do realize this, don't you? You are aware..."

Sven rolled his eyes, used to King's moods, and began to sign. His companion became quite agitated as he read them. "Obviously I'm not dead; I know I'm not dead. I said I almost died... And who are you to say my leg isn't broken. Have you studied healing while I wasn't looking? Is that it, you're a healer now? ...You are most certainly not." Alb Sven laughed and pointed to the fact that King was standing and walking on his 'broken' leg. "I would walk on a broken leg to get away from you, I guarantee that." He walked toward the exit of the chamber and at the door turned back and said, "Come on then." to Sven, who was already following.

As they climbed the rope ladder through the hatch above and back to the level of combat, they found themselves suddenly face to boot with an oncoming group of soldiers surrounding the Arm of the Imperator, Lord Hans.

Nearly a span over four cubits tall, putting his eye level conveniently over the heads of his troops. Tall, well built, clad in pants and vest of leather the color of drying blood but deep and rich. Beneath the vest he wore a white silk shirt with puffed sleeves and ruffles down the front. He looked like just another foppish courtier but between being a master swordsman and rumored one of the last approved wizards, he was the most feared man in the Imperium. Being more accessible and hence more frightening then the Imperator himself.

At the sight of him, the Imperial guards stood straighter, and the Allbrothers' shipmates went slack through spine and shoulders and allowed themselves to surrender. However the dark Lord was preoccupied. He simply walked through, not noticing the effect he was having on soldiers on both sides.

He passed Albs Sven and King without a glance. Everyone else on either side met their gaze with a three fingered salute or a mumbled apology for bringing violence to the feet of the beleaguered clerics.

With the loud tattoo of axes and a creaking floor-shaking crash the Imperial troops broke through to the level above and Alb King leaned over and whispered in his companion's ear, "There is no way the captain can escape this. Or anyone else."

As Hans passed from the deck; even though capture was certain, the ship's crew turned on the Imperials. Ave Hammerhand, the ships bosun picked up a cannonball that had rolled up against his foot and smashed it one-handed through an imperial helmet, and the skull beneath it. Before he had a moment to turn from his grisly chore another soldier shot him in the face with a fragmentation round that took his entire head, wetly.

Suddenly the air was filled with missiles thrown, launched, and fired. Alb Sven dropped to the floor dragging King down behind him. They proceeded, crawling, toward the rope ladder that would lead them up, to possible freedom.

As they inched along, King was winged with a lightning round which paralyzed and convulsed his left side. He fell flat to the ground, twitching, trying to catch his breath.

When King could rise, the action had died down considerably. He stood and looked around the smoke and dust filled room. He shouted, "Sven, you lazy coward, where are you?"

From among a knot of sailors Sven's hand rose, hard, brown and callused, it looked like a wooden spade. He waved once. King immediately began to walk purposefully shouting, "Let the Allbrother pass, you ignorant louts."

The sailors all walked off in their own directions. Leaving Sven with a single sailor leaning in to whisper to him conspiratorially. They parted with a handshake in which something was obviously passed to Sven. Something Sven immediately secreted about his person.

Alb King was quite put out to not be in on whatever secret was being exchanged. He dealt with his frustration by trying to ignore it had even happened. "We have to get out of here Sven. When they make their next pass through it will be with slave collars. It wouldn't be the first time clerical clemency was disregarded in the name of profit and punative example or education."

Sven nodded and grabbed King's hand, leading him quickly down ladders and across decks. King started to rebel after the first descent. Sven signed to him quickly and sternly.

"Trust you?" King said, "I'm not at all sure this is the time for you to even use the word 'trust'."

Sven shrugged and continued on his way, forcing King to follow purely through superior strength.

When they finally reached the bottom of the hull, King was almost mute with rage and fear. His face became still redder when Sven began lacing himself into a parachute. "I do not know what you intend to do, but you can forget any participation from me."

Sven smiled and signed.

"You're going to do what?" King cried, "Not before I have a parachute on, you won't"

Sven calmly removed a thin gray roll out of his pocket; like a scroll of clay parchment. He unrolled it sticking it to the hull as he went until it was completely attached like a narrow doorway on the wall.  
Then Sven measured out a wick from a spool in another pocket. He wrapped the end around a gumball sized detonator and kneaded it into the corner of the sheet.  
He lit the fuse, never looking at King and seeing he was struggling with his harness. King squeaked at the sparking wick and Sven finally looked at him. He quickly slapped King's hands away and had it secure in three quick movements.

He patted his partner on the shoulder as the explosive blew and the room was filled with swirling gale force winds created by the ship plummeting through the atmosphere.

Sven signaled King to watch him as he crawled out and was immediately pushed flat against the hull by the winds. King followed inching along the hull until they reached the deck and could jump free.

They had almost reached the deck and their own departure when someone found the wing release, and pulled the ship out from under them.

Suddenly they were tumbling uncontrolled toward the ground. Sven spread his arms and legs catching air in his robes until he balanced out. When he saw his partner still tumbling toward death He went into a controlled vertical dive.

He hit his partner hard enough to knock the air out of both of them, but he had the presence of mind to hold on tight with his legs and one arm as he triggered his chute with the other.

King caught his breath enough to scream, "You hideous moron. How many chaos-taken times do you need to try to kill me today? I swear when I get to the Homefast on this planet; I'm not only going to request a new assignment I am going to report you as dangerously incompetent and suggest Reeducation or possibly have you disrobed."

Sven laughed,as he always did when the term 'disrobed' came up, which it often did with his tantrum throwing partner. Who seemed to remain strangely and willfully ignorant that the correct term was 'defrocked'.

He patted King's shoulder with his free hand.

King responded, "Just hang on. This is no time to be groping me."

This time Sven laughed again with a deep almost barking sound.

As the ground rose up to meet them, Sven pulled the ropes at a slight angle that somehow caught more air and slowed them further to minimize the shock of landing.

That moment Lord Hans was looking out of the hole they'd left through.

"Are you certain it was a pair of Allbrothers, Lieutenant?" He asked the soldier standing next to him.

"Yes Sir, When I arrived they were much closer and I saw them both quite clearly."

"Well I have suspected for some time that there were some who were abusing their clerical clemency . You are to take a shuttle immediately and go down to the surface. Find them and bring them back for questioning." Hans said.

"Close enough to recognize clerical vestments is not necessarily close enough to recognize faces." The lieutenant responded.

"Are you mocking me officer? Because if all you can be counted on for is jests and hearsay I am going to be very disappointed in you. You are dismissed." Hans turned and swept away.

The lieutenant ran to obey. Not sure if he was supposed to go back to the Imperial Troop Carrier for a shuttle or commandeer the closest one from this vessel. He gambled that an Imperial shuttle was preferred, and prayed the gamble wouldn't somehow cost him his life.

Hans, however, was much too busy to care what the lieutenant did. When he had heard that a ship he was already pursuing might also have Imperial contraband, he was pleased at the thought of another feather in his cap. But whatever the Allbrothers might have smuggled off the ship was not the reason it had been stopped and boarded. He was looking for Lady Elsa, his wayward bride.

He found her exactly as he expected to. Fighting four soldiers at once the ground littered with their fallen comrades. In her hand was a whip thin rapier that had been suffused with the ability to cut through steel. A gift from him. He'd begged her to carry it for safety, when he still believed she was a proper woman. Who must be begged and coddled by a man into a willingness to fight if it might save her life. Not the bloodthirsty power-hungry shrew she showed herself later to be.


	3. Chapter 3

Anno had few chores that she couldn't rush through, shirk, or bumble so thoroughly that it would be reassigned. But she liked anything that might be considered boys work and while she knew her uncle would likely condemn her to the law if he knew how far her boyhood fascination had been allowed to go; he did occasionally give her 'boys' chores as long as they were the sort that were done alone and away from any prying eyes.

That particular afternoon she was in the deep fields dusting the golems. Golems were clay men that were often utilized as tireless labor on farms and in simple industry. They never ate, they never tired. They were cheaper, more efficient, and for simple repetitive work they were in all ways better than slaves. But to function they had to have the spell that animated them and the instructions they were to follow carved into their skin. As they got dirty and dusty with their work and the writing became marred their functionality would become impaired. So someone would have to come out to where they were working and clean them. The golems would continue to work, ignoring the cleaner, thereby making his, or in Anno's case her, job all the harder. But she had fun wrestling the big oblivious behemoths.

As she finished cleaning the dust from the forehead where the life spell was inscribed she looked up into the air to see a parachute bearing down on her. She was able to gauge their trajectory well enough to assure that they wouldn't be crashing on top of her head. It wasn't long before they joined her in a precipitation of thin strong cloth covered in a pattern of tiny imperial symbols on a silvery blue background.

Before it had even all pooled to the ground, Anno was already gathering it up. Like any commander of a child army she understood the cornerstone of scavenging anything she could.

Suddenly the air was filled with the plaintive whine of complaining. "Get your hands off me. I certainly do not require your help. Your idea of help has been nothing but a burden to be suffered for me. Now if that child we saw has not run off, perhaps I can ask the location of the nearest Homefast and I can be reassigned and free of you forever.." At that point a gangly, prissy monk in Allbrother robes struggled out of the tangled cloth.

Anno hadn't met many Allbrothers, the most liberal and forgiving of all orders. But it did seem that while they were all kind enough; the ones who sacrificed their manhood to service when given the choice between celibacy and silence were prissy, fastidious, and prone to whining. While those who sacrificed their tongues were usually rough, common, and prone to workman's humor. She had heard rumors that they had started partnering dissimilar Albs, to create balance. This was proven when his partner appeared folding the cloth efficiently from below as he came. He was broad, with an abundance of wiry hair and a long rough beard. His skin was weather hardened and looked almost like wood..

"Greetings Child." The smaller one spoke, noticing her. "I am Alb King and this, my companion, is Alb Sven. We had a bit of trouble with our transport and were wondering if you knew the way to the nearest Homefast."

Anno did know the way, but she also knew that Allbrothers took an oath of service to their fellow man. Anyone finding an unattached Alb could request service. As long as there was work and they weren't mistreated they would serve throughout their lives. "The Allbrother Homefast is ever so far away. If you have the time and are willing, my uncle could certainly use your help around here. I'd be happy to help you. I always found the Allbrother life so fascinating."

King looked confused and said, "Well, child, we have just had a very traumatic event that caused us to leave our transport in parachutes. Perhaps you could take us to somewhere we could sit for a moment and collect ourselves."

"Of course, Alb King. I will take you up to the main house; where you will dine with us and stay the night. Tomorrow everything will look much more clear. I'm sure my uncle would enjoy the chance to discuss the Allbrother life and the Oath of Service." Anno said. "Well either way, load into the wagon and I can take you somewhere where you can rest and plan your next move."

The wagon had a high bench seat and a cargo area the size of a large bed. It had wooden spoke wheels, shod in thin iron to minimize wear. The awning was light and delicate, attached with bolts and a frame much heavier than would seem necessary. This was due to its method of locomotion. The front half of the awning was sailcloth, so when it was uncovered it pulled so hard in an attempt to fly, that it pulled the entire wagon along at a very respectable speed. At least that is what her uncle thought. It was not as fast as any number of animal mounts would be running full tilt, Anno pointed out. She always drove it completely uncovered and as fast as it would go. However, with her uncle, her objections always fell on aggressively indifferent ears.

Naturally, Alb King barely waited until they were underway to comment. "I'm sure that is quite fast enough, child. My companion and I are in no hurry. Come now child, I must insist you adopt a speed more appropriate for these uneven roads." He looked at her expectantly for a few moments obviously becoming steadily more vexed until he said, "It is obvious from your behavior that your uncle and I have a great deal more than The Oath of Service to discuss." Then he turned away from her, quite deliberately, in a pout.

* * *

Lord Hans waited until he was on solid ground and in the Ministry of Service building to speak to his prodigal bride. A real, if proprietary, affection warred within him with a gut boiling rage at her behavior.

Hans, who unlike many of his class was not enamored of such play, disliked seeing his bride bound hand to ankle and kneeling. He did feel it was necessary, however, both to break her spirit and to show publicly that no one was above Imperial justice. All the more important because her public disrespect paid both to him and the Imperial Patriarch, demanded a public rebuke and possible punishment.

The constant attention the platoon set to guard her observed her with, was met by her own balefire glare sweeping each faceplate in turn. Boring into the eyes that were the only visible feature, and the minds behind them. As she stared at each, the soldier broke eye contact first, to stare blankly at her feet. Wanting to keep her always in sight, as ordered; but not wanting to catch her attention a second time.

When Lord Hans's shadow touched her skin, her eyes immediately snapped to his face. His body; long, athletic, and sharp as any blade looming over her. His eyes wide and white with rage did not intimidate her in the slightest as she knelt bound on the floor. "Hans, I should have expected his Holy Majesty's most inveterate oathbreaker would show up before this was allowed to end peacefully. I was told I could be given to you in marriage or I could spend the rest of my life chained to a loom in a work convent. I was reporting to my loom, Sir." She spat the last word like an angry expletive.

Lord Hans looked at her long hair, so pale a blonde it looked like spun snow, spread out submissively on the floor for the soldiers and him to tread on. Her thin wiry body that he expected to find vibrating with rage like a bowstring was calm and even. Though she was obviously furious. The thin high plains of her face were calm and her ice blue eyes didn't betray her true feelings, they just bore into him with almost physical force.

"Lady Elsa, I would suggest that no matter how repugnant you act, I will see you trained in proper behavior. I believe all women can be trained. The threat of a work convent was a metaphor. To state that if you do not accept your fate, I will make your life a living hell. But no female of your breeding could be seen in a work convent. A street slattern has a choice to obey a male or enter a work convent. A women of birth and blood has a choice to obey a male or to be corrected so strictly and impressively that she chooses to obey.  
Since a true lady is never seen in public without gloves, I can start by smashing every bone in your hands. I will have as long as I need to train you. I will have years of experience informing my every movement. And, of course, I will have a team of professionals, shall I require assistance." He paced around her as he spoke and on the last sentence he stepped onto her hair. Pinning her to the ground facing one direction. He went down to one knee out of her field of vision and whispered in her ear. "But first, you will answer, why your trip to a 'work convent' landed you on the ship of known anti-Imperialists? We already have the captain, his officers and a suspected traitor from within my own guard in custody, so there is no reason to lie.

Lady Elsa calmly replied, "Oh Hans, you do babble on, don't you? I have no idea where you find the paranoid energy to turn a completely innocuous charter crew into armed insurgents. And whatever happens to whatever loyal soldier was unlucky enough to catch your mad gaze. He at least will know the true reward of misplaced loyalty."

Lord Hans leapt to his feet.. "I think I would prefer to listen to your traitor's tongue scream and beg, than to lie about the obvious.' He unsheathed his saber with a fluid movement and struck near her tender flesh. But she knew she was not yet in that sort of danger as her ropes fell away. "Take her somewhere to think and await my pleasure."

* * *

Hans left the Lady in the hands of his soldiers as he sought out the prelate responsible for this world.

"I am uncertain, Lord Hans," The Prelate said, looking at him. "Your assurances that she can be trained will cripple you in public opinion, if she humiliates you yet again."

Hans had hoped Lady Elsa, at sixteen, would not be a match for his methods and what he had seen so far had truly frightened him. But he could not say that. "Prelate, I will devote myself to proving she can be trained. I suggest your energies would be better spent pondering how I might retaliate against a low level bureaucratic functionary speaking of my premarital stress in such combative terms. A female humiliate me? What sort of repellent eunuch do you take me for?"

The Prelate paled and then greened a bit around the edges as he said, "I am certainly sorry sir. I never intended to imply any such thing."

"You might make it up to me by locating these clerics that were seen arriving on your planet with Imperial contraband. I believe they are using their clerical dispensation to mask pirate or loyalist activity. I'll leave it to you to bring forward any suspicious strange clerics. Directly to me Prelate."

"Of course my lord, happy to serve, my lord." The bureaucrat bowed and backed away.

Lord Hans left the room himself as soon as his inferior had backed out the door.

* * *

Anno pulled the brakes with one hand while pulling the fabric cover over the roof blocking the light from it with the other, bringing the wagon to a gentle stop in front of a large brick and stone ranch house.

"I am pleased child," Alb King said, "To see you know more about stopping appropriately than you do about driving." He turned to see a large man whose muscular frame hung with a generous roll of fat around the middle that put the Allbrother in mind of a prize bull that had been put out to stud for a bit too long.

Anno called out, "Uncle, look I've found some stray Allbrothers. I thought you might like to meet them. I know how curious you'd be about the Allbrother life, and the Oath of Service." She gave her uncle a broad wink, as if there could be any mistaking her meaning.

He approached the wagon, examining King closely. "I see you are a fellow Arrendellean. How long has it been since you last walked those shores?"

It was the first time Anno really looked at Alb King. His hair and mustache were a deep russet. A darker version of her own red auburn. And he had the high cheekbones and cream skin with scattered light freckles of many of her countrymen. Fewer than she had herself, but he did not appear the outdoors type. She had come to this world as a baby, but had always dreamed of seeing the land where she was born. Many Arrendellian emigrants had moved here a generation ago when the Imperium took it. Which was why this island had been named for it. Little did they know that the Imperium would soon have this world as well. Along with nearly every world within those reaches of the Void explored so far.

"I'm sure you understand sir," King began, "Everyone is from somewhere. We are born, we live a life, we die. Some of us die more than once. When I took the Oath of Service, I left behind everything I was before in favor of being a brother to all things. Now my companion and I have had a very trying day. Which has ended on your front door step. I am accomplished negotiating with merchants and market keepers. I have experience overseeing the staff of larger kinfasts than this, and I have experience educating children. Including children who have abilities and ambitions beyond their station in life. Something I suspect you could greatly use. My Companion, Alb Sven, can fix anything magic or man-made. Both of us are hard working and greatly determined to impress. We take our oath of service very seriously. I think we could be a fantastic addition to your house. What say you Goodman?"

Anno's uncle nodded slowly and said, "Aye, 'brother. Go to the cookhouse, the cook will feed you something and there is always work there. I will speak to you later regarding regular duties. But at present I must speak to my niece."

Her uncle led Anno inside. Into his office, as she knew he would. He felt she provided the servants with plenty of opportunity for gossip without his collaboration.

"Anna, I'm sorry but this has to end.  
I know you think I love the Imperial Regime. In truth, I am nowhere near that pleased with them.  
However I understand safety. I understand the way things is the way things are.  
No matter how I feel, or how you feel, this is the real world and you have to make peace with that.  
I have not done my duty by you, and for that I am sorry. I have turned the other way, so as not to see all you've done.  
I pray half the things I've heard about this Anno Simian character you have so enjoyed playing are not true.  
But true or not, you must put it behind you. You should have been married off two or even three years ago.  
Your prospects are slim now, but if I do not assert my hand in your life, there will be no choice but the work convent.  
You must know any marriage is better then that.  
Next week we will be presenting Anna Farmer formally at services and town meeting, and you will be betrothed before two months pass.  
It is decided.  
Now you best get up to your room and start picking those braids out, and rebraid them properly.  
If you don't, there are always wigs and shaving a girl's head is common punishment for all sorts of misdemeanors"

"Uncle Farmer, I owe you so much." Anna replied.  
"I respect you, and know the truth of your words.  
But marriage would be the death of me. Either it would kill me or I would.  
I'm just not ready to die yet. Give me these next two days to make my peace. We will speak again on Marketday."

"Anna, this is not a matter for discussion. This is a matter for obedience." Her uncle was not enjoying this, but was so determined to do what must be done, that he was not even hearing what his niece said.

"Later, Uncle." Anno said and left to the sound of her uncle loudly calling her back.

Anno found the monks eating in the workman's dining room. The cook and maids serving and scurrying out, worried that they might see a man they weren't related to eating. Which was ridiculous. The Albs would know the law as well as anyone, and did not strike her as the sort who would do something as pointlessly cruel as that.

Anno, of course, was having none of it. She'd broken worse laws and was planning an utter destruction of the very concept of an statutory life for herself. So a misdemeanor harlotry like seeing men eating was practically nothing.

As the cook was leaving, she said, "Miss Anna," in preparation for some rebuke.  
Anno, had had enough rebukes about her sex, and even more so enough unwarranted blows from this particular bully of a woman.

Anno raised her hand as if to strike her and held it there until the older woman looked away, turning her eyes to the floor. She pointed imperiously at the door and glared at the cook until she was gone.

With darkly flashing eyes and a string of angry muttering, the larger woman left.

Anno sat across from the Albs as they ate. "I'm calling in your Oath of Service." She said. "Between my uncle and Goodwife Steep, I am likely to be charged with sex crime. No man will marry a sex offender. Which would have only been slightly better than the work convents. Girls like me, who are willing to do what we need to to survive. We don't often last long in work convents. They like to make examples of us."

King answered, "Survive, Miss Anna? While the Imperium's treatment of women may be unfortunate. Women who obey have no trouble surviving."

"Anno, if you please, Alb King. With an ought. And it would certainly seem we define survival a bit differently. I include mental and spiritual survival as well. Not only the act of not physically dying. I don't know you personally, but I know your order. While ministering neutrality, yours is the only one who never ratified the Statutes of Control that did this to women."

"That is true Miss. However, not only would we not know how to help, but your uncle already claimed our oath." King said.

"I was standing there Alb King, and I beg to differ. He presumed he had your oath. And you allowed him to assume and encouraged him, seeing no reason not to. If you had actually begun serving, then your service would have proven his presumption correct. If he had explicitly claimed it, as I have, that too would be a different story.  
As it stands now, I got to you first. I never behaved as if I did not have your oath. I just assumed, as did you, that I had no need for it. However, I have now made a formal claim. Plus I think you can agree, my need is greater"

"An invocation of our oath to commit treason is not binding." King said.

"Please do not be melodramatic, Allbrother. It is not treason. It is illegal, but it is not immoral and I think you know it."

Alb Sven caught King's eye and signed to him.

"Of course you want to help her, you would choose it just to go against me.  
-You're right, it's no more dangerous than what you've gotten me into so far.  
And if I die in Service, I won't have to listen to you complain anymore."

Sven found this very funny, for some reason. And his laughter made his hands move too much to sign for a moment.

When he continued signing, King said. "Apparently my companion already has an appointment in the village. I suggest you gather what you can by way of clothing and supplies, and we will finish our meal. Then we will once again entrust ourselves to chance.

Anno knew that it was blasphemy for a monk to say 'chance' instead of 'providence'. Since the Imperial Patriarch took office the fact of a Divine Plan for every single action was no longer safe to dispute. She also knew King said it intentionally, possibly to see what she did. She chose to not react at all and just file it away as a curiosity, as she climbed the stairs to her room to pack.

Because of her cover story as an urchin, she only had three outfits of boys clothes. Even though they were incredibly easy to steal and she had previously had access to money if she wanted it.  
She took all three outfits and her much patched heavy weather cloak. Taking a moment to wish they all were in better shape. Since she didn't know when she might buy others.  
She took the few pieces of jewelry Anna had, as most jewelry was considered unladylike.  
She also took a garment that was basically three meters of finished raw weave silk. The wrapping of which she had never mastered. But the fabric itself was worth equal to all her other possessions put together.

She finally brought out her most prized possession from where she kept it hidden.  
The pistol she had stolen from the troop transport, when she hijacked it nearly a year ago yet had never fired. She was more scared of it than excited by the thought of such power.  
She packed a straight razor, a two bladed dailyknife, and a short sword, all of which were taken from the family stores and may once have belonged to her uncle. She also chose to take her heavy leather razor strop. Which was very useful in it's original purpose as well as being the only weapon she'd ever actually used in combat.  
Everything went into a leather across the shoulder carryall. Except for the dailyknife and razor strop, both of which she secured to her belt.

When she returned downstairs the Allbrothers were waiting by the door. She walked straight out without slowing or stopping, the Allbrothers falling into step with her as she passed.

She'd made the decision to take the wagon when she decided to leave. Not only was it the only vehicle she was allowed to drive, she was almost the only one who ever drove it. Which made it hers enough that since transportation was obviously necessary, she felt it could be taken without regret.

As she drove off the property, she asked. "So who are we going to see, and why?"

King answered, "My companion was apparently given a message for Noble Stone. An older gentleman of some renown, in certain circles. Perhaps he can aid your own escape."

"The only Stone in town I know of is Tomten Stone. And he is only known as an old madman. He sits in an shack of gray poured stone blocks. No one ever sees him. I heard he kills anyone who knocks on his door and eats them." Anno said scared and excited, in the manner of a teenaged adventurer.

"That is our gentleman.' King said. "Noble is his title not his name. He was Lord Stone before the Imperial Patriarch gained power. He renounced his title, but the worlds insisted on some honorific and started calling him Noble Stone. He allowed it, but does not use it himself.  
I assure you if he is locked away it is in study, not in madness. And I am certain he does not eat visitors.  
Cannibalism fell out of favor, even in the upper classes, when he was a child."

"Oh that is a comfort." Anno said sarcastically, but King chose not to hear the sarcasm and acted as if that settled it.

* * *

Soldiers of the Imperium thought nothing of invading private land in their pursuit of the two escaped monks. They found a field that was directly in the projected line of descent. There, beside a group of laboring golems, they found a trampled patch of about nine feet across that absolutely looked like the landing place of two men in a parachute. The lieutenant knew his life would be worthless and likely forfeit if he failed to complete Lord Hans's bidding.

Obviously the golems were useless for what he needed. But he had no difficulty in finding who the land belonged to. And when he arrived at the moderately sized but very well appointed estate house of Goodman Farmer he found the entire place in disarray. A chaotic melange of servants and townspeople.

The Lieutenant grabbed a passing servant. "What is going on here, crone?"

The servant pulled herself up standing straight, "Crone, sir? I am only a Matron, Sir." She said indignantly.

"I cannot imagine anything mattering less than your age, crone. Now tell me what transpires here, without asides to your foolish women's vanity."

The servant women almost looked like she was considering rebuking him, but in the end she hung her head and said. "The Master's niece, his ward, is gone."

The lieutenant did not expect that this would have anything to do with his mission, but he could take no chances. "Gone? Gone where?"

"I wouldn't know sir, but I do know she's wickedness's own child. There were two monks here. Some say they stole her. I don't know about that, I'd wager it is just as likely, she stole them. Somehow."

"That is ridiculous, crone. To even suggest a young girl could somehow abscond with two grown men, is sacrilege." The lieutenant said, caught between laughing at the foolish servant and anger on behalf of right thinking males everywhere.

The lord of the house provided adequate distraction, cuffing the crone on the back of the head, hard. "I won't have you speaking against my sainted niece. Those two scoundrels, probably not even true Allbrothers stole her.  
I ask, what use do Allbrothers have for a girl? They must truly have been wife slavers, masquerading as monks. Now you soldier, you must come in for information. I am glad to see the Imperial soldiers taking a personal interest. Of course, it was my intent to insist they do, but this saves time."

The lieutenant puzzled a moment, he cared nothing if this niece was taken by wife slavers. But it did sound like his monks. "Sir, the best I can do for you is get on their tail while it is still fresh. Can you give me a description?"

Anno's uncle gave the descriptions, thinking that since he was describing his niece as the properly-bred female she was not, the descriptions given were not the sort that would be of any use to anybody. He also felt a little bad sending Imperial soldiers after King, when he knew his niece had railroaded him into any action he might take. But he figured the future would see her punished for the life she'd chosen. And while she may be barely grown, grown she was. She needed to be accountable.

The lieutenant knew something was a little dodgy about this landholder and his niece, but he had work to do so he put it out of his mind.

* * *

Hans went into Lady Elsa's cell. Where she was tied with ropes and chained to the stone floor. "I have had my eye on you for years." He said.

She looked into his eyes, maintaining a strong and disdainful glare. Although her head was bound inches from his boots. "Do you have any idea how repugnant that is to a lady who has only been of marriageable age for less than a year. I was twelve the first time I heard my father say that he would prefer me dead by his own hand than bound to you.  
And even though he is dead by your hand now, it does not erase his wishes from my mind.  
There is no torture great enough to break my spirit sufficiently to make me safe.  
You could mutilate me until children cried and matrons screamed "Dear God, what is that thing?" if I dare to venture out by light of day, and still I will quietly plot.  
Your only safety lies in killing me.  
For if you don't, no matter how long it takes and how much I lose, I will first take your manhood and then take your life."

Lord Hans smiled down at her. "I know spells and torments that will lock your mind helplessly within a body I control like a puppet.."

Lady Elsa's eyes sparked. "Oh Hans, do please do that to me. It would be worth spending the rest of my life silently wishing I could vomit, trapped within my own head. If I know even your lowest functionary servant knows that you had to work the strongest spell you know to control a girl half your size, nearly half your age, who knows no magic.  
Oh Hans, that is more than I could hope for. That would annihilate you politically and socially. Yes that suits me perfectly."  
She paused and smiled, "Unless she's scared. Is that it, Miss Hans, Are you a scared little maiden? Does the Lady Hans require her wetnurse? Or do you just want mummy?"

He kicked her in the face with a scream that showed the exact lack of control she was hoping for. As he spun and left she laughed, blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. "You come on back sweetie if you need help with your corset." She laughed to herself and then mumbled, "You're a girl." under her breath.

He almost went back to kick her again, but even he knew he was not thinking clearly. That he could not think clearly around her.

* * *

Anno had driven them around the town, rather than through, at King's instruction. On the south side of the moderate staid town they rode into the lowlands where the road was built up on stone pilings, and on one side was the thorny twisted bramble forest with it's dangerous and delightful blackberries. Where Anno had spent many days playing and warring with her cadre. On the other was the soft fields of peat bog, divided by low hard clay plateaus leading to the Riverfolk compound.

Onward they rode until Anno said. "Just where does this Noble Stone live?"

"Soon child, quite soon." He pointed slowly to a side road that led practically to the front of a medium, dome shaped brick and clay hut built against the southern wall of the Riverfolk compound, like a wasps nest.

Standing at the door, arm raised in greeting, was the elder who had smuggled her out of the compound when she crashed an Imperial transport into it.  
The moment that Anno saw Noble Stone, she knew that she knew him, but it took her a moment to think of the circumstances. "You're the old man from the Sailmakers' compound.  
You smuggled me and the boys out when we stole that troop transport. What were you doing in the Sailmakers compound anyway?"

"Noble Stone goes where he wishes child, and is welcomed wherever he goes." King said.

"Please King, I can speak for myself. Young Master Simian, I think you'd be better served to spend less energy wondering why I was there and just be grateful I was."

"I certainly am sir, and make no mistake. But I was curious." Anno said.

"Curiosity is a powerful force. But it is a double edged blade. Without it there would be no knowledge. But without it your father would doubtless still be with us." Stone said.

"You knew my father?" She asked.

"Briefly, like everything in his short life. I met him in passing when he was twelve. Spent the better part of a year on a freighter with him when he was eighteen. Before he was twenty you were born and he was gone. I saw and spoke to him on the day he disappeared, but that was just a coincidence. I do believe I know where he went and what happened there. So I didn't know him long, but I thought I knew him well." He swept them with a bitter and angry glare pausing a moment on each of them as if deciding which of them he was mad at. "It was your uncle who I really knew."

"My Uncle, Sir?" Anno asked, unsure if the master meant her 'uncle' who had raised her. Or another relative who had not previously been mentioned.

"Not the distant relative who raised you, son. Your actual uncle, your father's brother." Stone said, correctly reading the question in her tone.

"If you have no need of me Miss Anno I will take the rig round the side to water the horses, while you and my counterpart take Noble Stone inside to converse."

"That's fine King." Anno said. As Noble Stone gave a hand to Alb Sven and the two of them stood on each side to offer help, which she ignored.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N I include a digetic argument on the subject of Anno's gender and whether to call her 'him' or 'her' specifically the argument that she lives as a boy but she is not transgender; with a character arguing that they would call her 'him' if she were transgender but won't because she's not. in the case of the story there is reason for the characters to call her by male pronouns but I as a narrator outside that world do call her by female pronouns for the very same reason._

Arch-lord Weselton waited outside the Lady Elsa's cell. Delaying while he waited for Lord Hans. He passed the time educating the guards. Two large burly men, both young and foolish as any soldier deemed replaceable enough to pull twenty-four hour monitoring duty. By definition they were not needed anywhere else.

"You mustn't let her wickedness incite you to harsh behavior or let her natural female prurience tempt you to sin. She must spend this time of solitary reflection embracing the joy of becoming Lord Hans' bride. It would never do to have her distracted with thoughts of bemoaning her situation and any punishments you might rightly choose to give her. Instead report all wrongdoing you witness and Lord Hans will take the husband's role in training her."

The guards seemed confused and unhappy with this pronouncement. Neither of them had ever been advised not to discipline a prisoner. But no one would challenge the Arch-lord. Certainly not they.

"She's branked and bound, Arch-lord. I'm sure we'll have no cause to even interact with her beyond watching her scowl and weep on her pallet." One said.

"And a women on her bed of shame, branked and bound, has never tempted a god-fearing man, I take it? Attend my words and your duties and you can't go wrong, son."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

Lord Hans arrived then. "Arch-lord, why don't you venture in? There was no need to wait."

"You claim her as your bride but you wonder why I would wait on you before speaking to her, sir?" Weselton said.

"You're quite correct, of course. I apologize. Please let me show you my bride. Excuse the mess. She has turned out to require a great deal more repair and education than I originally thought." Lord Hans said.

"Perish the thought, my boy. All the men of the Imperatorial Court have a great deal of respect for you doing this on your own. A little inconvenience now to know you were personally the one who broke her spirit. She'll never look at anyone the way she looks at you when she truly realizes in her heart that she is yours as much as your boots, your bed, or your manor." Weselton said.

When they entered Lady Elsa's cell her arms were bound behind her back. Her arms were laced together in a crisscrossed single sleeve of braided rope from elbow to wrist. Her head was encased in a branks. Also called a scold's bridle, it was a cage of heavy harness leather straps which completely covered her head. A tongue of hardened leather went into her mouth over her own tongue, making it impossible to speak. The ignorant guards who saw witches behind any act of female rebellion flatly refused to be in the same room as her if she didn't wear it, for fear she would curse them. Hans only agreed because of the torment and humiliation to have the apparatus strapped tightly to her face. This particular tool had been known to induce a feeling of panic and smothering in people who had never had such fears previously just because of the combined stimuli of the heavy apparatus weighing down the head and the tongue-brace impeding breathing just enough.

"Dear Elsa," Hans began. "If you would only stop this nonsense and see reason, I could have you on a ship to my home and manor within the hour. It pains me to see you like this. You must know the more you pain me, the more pain will be returned to you in educational suffering. You clearly are too hard headed and hard-hearted to see it, but I do this for you. You must see it. It is only through a deep and enduring affection I would care so much about your prospects in this life and the well being of your immortal soul. It's this reason I work so hard to help you embrace your destiny. I am a very busy and important man. I can scarce spare these moments to talk to you, let alone the hours and days I will invest in you before I wed the woman I know I can help you become." Hans paused and stepped closer to where Elsa lay. "By our laws I am the rightful lord of all your father's holdings. His ships, his goods, his manor house. Even you and your foster mother. Perhaps I will bring her here to visit. Perhaps watching me take possession of the woman who raised you will drive home the dire straits you find yourself in."

At this Elsa began to thrash against her bonds and shout garbled threats past the tongue-brace of her bracks. Arch-lord Weselton touched Hans' arm as he stepped forward. Lord Hans offered a gesture inviting the older man to try what he will as he stepped back giving him room.

"I am-" Arch-lord Weselton began.

Elsa's jaw muscles flexed like cords and she spat the severed tongue-brace at Weselton's feet. "I know who you are weasel-spawn." She said clearly, her mouth now unencumbered. "I suggested Miss Hans might require her nanny. I'm pleased to see she agreed and sent for you. I hope you can burp her or nurse her. Change her nappy or whatever the cranky wee miss requires to get her over her current case of the naughties."

* * *

Up close Anno noticed the old man was short and stout. Broad and muscular rather than fat, but aging.

He also was clearly Uruut. His skin that Anno had first thought dusty and weathered was in fact gray and rough by nature. His hand felt like it was covered in fine sand when they clasped hands in greeting. There was also a heaviness, a firmness to his flesh. His flesh didn't feel like stone despite the sandy texture but it was clearly denser than Anno's own. It was said the Uruut were from a cold world where ice took most the water. A good thing because the natives were too dense and would only sink.

Anno was not a tall girl but Noble Stone only came to her eyebrows, though he was almost twice as broad as she.

The inside of his home seemed to have only furniture made of carved or poured stone. Some with thick rug-like covers, some just plain and bare.

Stone sat the girl at the table and sat across from her. Alb Sven sat to her left and steepled his fingers looking from Stone to Anno and back again. His face interested and calm. Anno knew he had a message for the man, but apparently he had chosen to kindly allow her to follow up on Stone's recent revelation. Since he did not immediately show any interest in jumping into his own tale, she took the proffered opportunity.

"Where do you know my father and Uncle from?" Anno asked.

"In the service of the Council of Worlds there were the Dsan Warriors and the Dando, who wielded the strength of the elements and the spirit world. Of the Conclave of Shadows only the Sailmakers traditionally have a broader facility than Dando. But the few Dsandando who share the skills of both orders are broader in scope and skill.  
Well, in our time your uncle and I were the only living Dsandando. Your father was just a low counsel functionary ordered to be our envoy because of his relationship to your uncle. He followed along behind us watching. He would observe and report. Officially having authority to sanction our actions in the name of the council if we were challenged by citizens or bureaucracy in our work.

"But you say my father would be with us still if he was not so curious. What did you mean Noble?" Anno asked.

"Not at all, son. I said without curiosity he would still be around. I said 'here' but his location is immaterial. I meant 'here' as in continuing to act as your father and his position with the government. Since while the council of worlds has been suspended the last ten years. But bureaucratic functionaries always find work. But unfortunately your uncle was a dark wizard."

Anno's face went dead white and Stone gripped her bicep.

"Son, you clearly have little familiarity with our terms. Dark and light wizards have nothing to do with ethics or honor. Magic consumes and produces huge amounts of energy. Like saddling a thunderbolt. Some, like myself are energized by the power, making us live half again a normal span and more; in vibrant health throughout. A dark wizard is consumed by his own power. He is lucky to live twenty years into adulthood. Usually their flesh darkens and they may shrink a bit as if with age. Or as if they were being baked from the inside. It is this darkening and the grief of those who love them that that gives dark wizards their name. Your uncle discovered his brother, your father would have been a light wizard if he'd had the spark and he became obsessed with myths that a dark wizard could transfer his spirit to a stronger body. Without discussion, but for the greater good he was able to transfer his abilities to his brother when he was killed.  
In this moment his brother screamed, released energy in a circle of radiating power and fainted.  
When he awoke, unfortunately, his healer had left the room to check on another person and when she returned your father was gone. He was spotted by bystanders three different places within an hour, and then never was reliably spotted again. I certainly have my suspicions but nothing I'm going to take the time to investigate. He clearly values his anonymity. Whenever I hear legends of an unidentified saboteur doing something that should have been impossible. I like to pretend its him. Working from the shadows. But for all I know it could just be a pretty fancy with no more truth than a child's bedtime story of princesses and pirates."

"I thought you said he was dead." Anno said.

"No, I said he's not with us. And whether dead or in hiding, he is most assuredly not _with_ us." Stone corrected. "And since he's clearly dead or in hiding, without ever having chosen to put the abilities he clearly inherited to use in the struggle of freedom, I would say even if he was here, he is no longer the man who was your father. Let alone the hero he might have been."

* * *

Arch-lord Weselton smirked at Elsa across her cell on his second visit with the foul vixen, as the lady's haughty snarl that began when the first guard entered, began to crumble as the sixth guard along with Hans and Weselton and a large long box entered her room. "You have nothing to say when you are captured. Caught red handed in reason. You have nothing to say when your loving fiancee begs you, in the name of the love you share, to come clean about your crimes. Still you say nothing when our most trusted bride trainer asks you to show some loyalty to the man who saved you. Who is willing to wed so abhorrent a woman as yourself."

"You mean your chief torturer who tried to get me to swear loyalty to the man who killed my father and seeks to force me into slavery." Lady Elsa asked.

"So dramatic, so deluded." Weselton said. "But you so dearly want to be hard done by, and I believe I can assist. I challenge you to be isolated on the grounds of the prelate for three days. At that time you might feel more appreciative toward you fiancee and your freedom."

He motioned toward the guards and they lay the box on its back and opened it.

Elsa wouldn't have really been able to think of what the shiny white box resembled but laying down and when the whole front of the thing opened on a hinge she saw it clearly looked like a coffin that had been painted with a heavy opaque white lacquer.

When the men surrounded her and prepared to lift her bodily she suddenly had an idea of what was happening her. She began to struggle and Arch-lord Weselton clapped his hands together shouting for the men to stop. They froze and when instructed to, the four who held her lay her on the floor, pinning her immobile.

"The sinful trollop made her calf quite visible with no thought to propriety." Weselton said. "But that is my own fault. I know that there is no way to get any thoughts of propriety through the sin besotted mind of a woman. I will do what I should have done before I allowed these loyal soldiers of the Imperator into the presence of this harlot. Tailors attend me." He signaled to the remaining two guards. They approached and he said. "I need her ankles and wrists bound together and her sleeves sewn to her wrists and the hem of her dress sewn to her ankles. Then you are to place her in the isolation box. Then we will bury her on the grounds."

"What, Arch-lord?" Lord Hans asked, in shock. "Surely if she is locked within the box, there is no need to bury it. There are so many unnecessary risks."

"Oh Lord Hans, it does my old heart good to see you so fond of a maiden. And it breaks my heart your kind and gentle nature has brought you to this pass. Your heart in the unfeeling claw of a she-beast. Believe me, the fact that an earthquake could crush her, or even the simple weight of the earth itself. All the things that could theoretically go wrong in fact make this more effective. She will know that it is only through the grace of God that she survives. It will always be in the back of her mind as she contemplates her sins. She will also know that I will be spending these days trying to convince you to give her up as a mistake. And if you change your mind, she will be left to contemplate her sins until God releases her. So if she is unearthed in three days time it will be you who saved her and hopefully that will be just one of the reasons she will see she owes you love and obedience."

"Please, no, it's inhuman." Elsa began to weep. Tears that became a torrent as her clothes were sewn to her flesh. Then they became long loud screams with full body thrashing that tore about half the stitches out.

Arch-lord Weselton threw a small waterskin into the box with her. "Make it last. It's all you'll have for at least three days."

The torrent of words she screamed were muffled as the box was closed and stopped being words before the box had gone far enough to go completely silent in Hans' ears.

* * *

Noble Stone sat across from Alb Sven who was gesturing quickly as the elder reacted vocally. "Who's doing what?... And where is she?... And what's he doing? This is ridiculous. Lady Elsa? Lord Hans? And this very unique and special young man. Plus you and your partner. This is ridiculous, I want no part of it. ...No, of course I'm at your disposal. I just don't want to be. There is an old saying. 'they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, naturally they became heroes." If that doesn't sum up this whole ridiculous mess, I don't believe anything could. ...You do? I should hope so. You brought this to my door the least you could do is see it through."

Alb King came through the door right then and sat down only catching the very end. "A ship? What ship? What captain?"

Sven smirked and winked at Stone and Anno, then began to sign to his partner. King's face fell. "No, no, no. I am not doing this. You bring me onto a ship that is shot out of the sky. Then you want to take me off-world again without even stopping at the Homefast and assuring we have support in continuing this quest. ...No, no, no. I know that our order supports anything we choose to do in our service to our fellow man. But your reluctance to share with even the local Homefast let alone the Elders, seems to me that you are not being completely honest. And its not the first time... Whether you told me or not, you certainly made no effort to make sure I understood."

"Well is it settled then?" Stone asked. "Your partner won't go. You cannot leave him without a formal request to be reassigned. So you can't go. The captain is your hearth brother. Does this mean none of us are moving forward."

Alb Sven looked at King out of the corner of his eye and began to form subtle slow signs with his hand held near the table.

Alb King's eyes went big and his face flushed. He jumped to his feet, "You'll get me to go? You?! You do not control me! You arrogant, reckless, thoughtless monster."

Sven quickly signed to his partner. "Obviously I have spoken about my admiration of Noble Stone. So have thousands of people I'm sure. He is a living historical treasure."

He turned to Stone. "Would you call upon my Oath of Service to accompany you, sir?"

"No!" Anno shouted, overflowing with youthful energy. Then continued with a normal tone. "I have called on your oath. I have invoked it and you have not discharged my request to accompany me to safety. I am not safe here, dear Allbrother. Not by a long trek. I am going forward offworld to someplace I am not known and might be safe to live out my time in this life. Alb Sven's plan sounds like the only plan being suggested and is more than adequate, when looked at objectively."

"I told you the Oath is not valid to incite us to commit treason." Alb King said.

"Treason, Allbrother?" Noble Stone, interrupted as Anno began to reply. "This is not treason. Not by any definition. And your own order chose not to affirm the articles that destroyed the status and hopes of young Anno's entire sex. I must admit that the fact that you are of a notoriously compassionate order yet you seem to grasp at straws in repudiating Master Anno's claim on your oath. Do you, perhaps have some sort of internal question about the veracity of the Imperial oppression of half the population."

"I have no problem with women in general or her in particular." Alb King defended himself.

"Okay, I am not an Allbrother. It is my understanding that the primary vow you take is to be of service to your fellow man. That any person who calls upon your oath may have it. Excepting the fact; you are not obligated to act as a personal servant, you are not obligated to do anything immoral; and you are not obligated to wait at beck and call for someone against the possibility they might need you. Any petitioner must have need of you presently when they invoke the vow." Stone continued.

"That's a valid summary." King said.

"Than what is your issue with Master Simian?" Stone demanded.

"I have no issue with her. She is a bit of a rapscallion, but she seems to have a good heart." King said.

"I'm tempted to say that alone gives lie to what you're saying. Anno is dressed as a male, lives as a male, uses a male name, why do you insist on loudly breaking the lad's trust every time you open your mouth?" Stone said.

"She doesn't claim to be a male. This is a situation of convenience not a mistake of birth or anything that deep." King defended himself.

"So if the lad hated his body and felt imprisoned by it you would call him 'he', but since he only feels imprisoned by his circumstance he doesn't deserve that courtesy?" Stone asked.

"That's not true at all." King protested with wounded anger.

"Then please, explain." Stone said leaning forward and looking at the Allbrother expectantly.

"Fine, Noble. Anno has my vow. I will follow _him_ in _his_ escape and guide, advise, and protect _him _to the best of my ability. Are we done now?"

Stone smirked and said, "As the lad's choice of futures is accompanying me and perhaps trying to ingratiate himself as my protege. I'm guessing you and I are far, far from 'done'."


End file.
